SEO 101

Title Tags are commonly known as the title of the page and is displayed in the top bar of the search engine and as the header in search engine results. Some good information is in the article All About Title Tags. But the title tag can also be used on links and images. Alt Tags are extremely important for images, not only so computers can make the information audible, but for search engine robots to know what the image is about since they cannot see the image. This helps in higher page rankings. The title tag can be added to the <img> tag along with the alt tag. It is important not to replace the alt tag with the title tag since the alt tag carries much more weight than the title tag. The title tag can also be placed in the <a> tag to help define the link. This is great for footer links that are short and do not have a lot of keywords. The question is, “Do search engine robots give weight to the title tag?”

Not much has been written on this subject. There are a few blogs that briefly discuss this topic. SEO Book by Aaron Wall talks about which is better, the alt tag or the title tag. The answer is obviously the alt tag, but it is a good blog to read.

Another blog is Search Engine Optimization Journal by Nick Stamoulis. He references Aaron Wall’s blog and suggests that title tags be used in links, but not too much with alt tags as it might seem like spam to search engines.

Alt tags appear in browser windows when you hover your cursor over the images, but do not appear in Firefox. The title tag appears when your cursor hovers over images in Firefox. So, I place both title tags and alt tags on images for better viewer usability. It’s a good “just in case” thing. I am not sure if it helps boost page rankings, but it can’t hurt.

I have also tried placing title tags on links other than just footer links. I am still testing this theory out. It can help users get more information about what a link is about and it can be annoying to some users when that yellow horizontal bar pops up, but it might boost rankings. It is something to research and test. I’m assuming it isn’t that important since there is hardly any blogs or information about it.

I used title tags in the links for a client of mine, Portland Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Sue Wendling. I also placed title tags on all her images along with the alt tags. She has quite a few clients’ before and after photos in her Cosmetic Dentistry Smile Gallery. This helps give more places for keywords and more descriptions of what the site is about. The title tags need to be the same as the alt tags so the search engines will not think it is spam.

The title tags on links should also be similar to the link title. If a footer link says “Home,” the title tag would be “Cosmetic Dentistry Home.” This shows the search engines that the title for the link is about the page the link is linked to, but has a keyword in it. Keywords are essential and it is important that we do everything we can to place keywords throughout a site without it degrading viewers’ usability and seeming to be spam.

I suggest more testing and experimenting be done with title tags. I am interested in learning more.